And make sure you are safe on the roads by dressing to be seen – wear light, reflective clothes or carry a lamp or torch so that drivers and your responsible adult can see you. You can buy reflective badges and clips from the kiosk at school (prices range from 60p to £1.40)

Once again the School Council has voted to support the Love in a Box campaign.

Your daughter will have been given a leaflet to explain what this is and how it works. If you haven’t seen it you can download the leaflet here. Schools, churches, other organisations and individuals collect and pack items into shoeboxes for the Mustard Seed Relief Mission to send to under privileged children throughout Eastern Europe. They have sent on average 40,000 boxes each year and each one is individually received by a child.

There are two ways for you to get involved:

You can create your own gift box;

or

you can donate something for a class shoebox (your daughter will tell you what age group her pastoral group has decided to support).

You can see some ideas for what to send in as your contribution in the list below:

Alfriston School is raising vital funds for Buckinghamshire Mind on World Mental Health Day, 10th October, by donating the takings from the kiosk that week.

To help pupils understand the issues and to support their wellbeing, Buckinghamshire Mind will be delivering a uniquely designed mental health awareness assembly.

Mental health problems affect about 1 in 10 children and young people, which is as many as three children in every class. However, 70% of children and young people who experience a mental health problem have not had appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age.

Buckinghamshire Mind aims to address this by raising awareness of mental health within schools, promoting mental health wellbeing for children and tackling stigma by helping children to understand what a mental health problem is and to talk about mental health.

Buckinghamshire Mind provides a range of services for schools to support mental health wellbeing.
Look at these positive comments made by children and young people in schools who have benefited from the Peer Mentoring in Schools Service:
“This service gives you confidence to be who you are in a safe and accepting environment.”
“It gives people a place to talk and be comfortable being themselves. It’s also very fun and helpful.”
“I’ve loved having a safe environment to talk in and be free, to have a place of security is invaluable.”

Mental health problems can affect anyone, any day of the year. However, World Mental Health Day on 10th October, is a great day for schools, communities and individuals to show support for better mental health and for everyone to start looking after their own wellbeing.

To find out more about Buckinghamshire Mind and the mental health services it provides, please visit www.bucksmind.org.uk

When we heard about the earthquake in Mexico, we decided that we wanted to do something to help. We had already planned our Non-Uniform days and other charity events but felt that it was important to squeeze this in as an extra. So what could we do that was different to our existing plans?

In the end we thought it would be really easy to ask people to bring in their loose change to see if we could complete a money mosaic on the playground. We decided to send our money via Save the Children so thought an out line of a child would be good. In the end we arranged several child figures in a circle and went about laying out the coins; everything from pennies to two pounds had been handed in.

Everybody joined in and it got very busy on the playground and soon the outlines were completed and we set about filling in the shapes. They looked great!

When all the coins were laid down, the Maths department very kindly offered to sweep up all the money and count it and we made an impressive total which currently exceeds £180 and still more change promised.

Thank you to everyone who donated and took part and let’s hope we make some difference for the people affected by the earthquake.